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so it's been ages since i've posted here.....have a ton to catch up on...starting with the graduation party. lots of stress trying to make 200 graduation cap candies, 3 sombrero cakes, 8 pounds of taco meat, and look like i wasn't a thousand years old, all at the same time. phew. i think the party turned out really well tho. freezing cold all day, until about 4 o'clock, right as the party started, the winds died down and the sun came out and it was perfect for hanging outside at the walnut woods lodge. lots and lots of people came through. i think the boys enjoyed having the party together (altho since i'm writing this in july i can say i think that's the last time the three of them have been together.) i'm especially happy with how the videos turned out - it was a nice place for people to hang out, take a little break and stroll down memory lane. strangest moment of the day for me, was when i burst into tears when i saw randy hansen - jake's swim coach from wakonda. don't get me wrong, i like randy a lot and have lots of fond memories of the boys' years at wakonda, but tears? i think something just snapped. poor brady thought i'd lost it. i pulled it together quickly and had fun the rest of the night. all in all, a great party and well worth all the stress leading up to it.
happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear jakey.... happy birthday to you. 18. wow.......how can i possibly have an 18 year old son. jake spent the whole day at rehearsal, so i baked some cupcakes to take to the cast/crew. he came home and crashed for an hour or so, we went to Skip's for dinner (shocking!) and then he headed out to a party. i guess we were lucky to get any time at all with him:) must be nature's way of prepping me for when he leaves. yeah, right.
so we took jake's 'official' tour of Iowa. have to say it's a pretty impressive campus, physically and educationally, when you see it through the eyes of a guide:) had a nice walk on a nice day, saw a dorm room in Currier (giant shocker that they don't take you through Burge).....went to lunch at Burge....LOTS of choices at all the different stations but the food doesn't taste much different than dorm food did back in my day......met with the honors program which sounds promising....then met with a professor from the department which was the only strange point of the day. he kept his office very dark, and wasn't very enthusiastic (as everyone else that day had been). i think maybe he was trying to give jake a realistic picture of the program, given the other schools jake applied to. anyway, we left on a little bit of a downer but jake quickly turned it around and i feel like he's happy with his decision. there's so much opportunity for him - he'll just have to seek it out a little more actively than he would have at other places. everything happens for a reason and i'll admit that a small part of me is happy he's not halfway across the country. i hope he has a blast at school, explores all kinds of new things, and buckles down to get the background he'll need to make his choices for grad school limitless.
couple of really random things....during the tour this GIGANTIC dog wandered 'through' the tour. twice. i mean seriously this thing was the size of a pony. then, as jake and i were killing some time before an appointment, we were walking past the airliner and heard knocking on the window.....looked up and who's sitting in the front but kevin grimm. at the 'liner....2 o'clock....on a tuesday afternoon. random. just goes to show....you never know what's going to happen at Iowa:)
you found the right place, now all you have to do is leave a comment. What do you know now that you wish you knew when you were heading off to school? What's the one piece of advice you wish someone had given you? Can't wait to hear these! thanks for your participation. D
shoot. bad day from the get go for jake. he got up early to run before school, and had to do it in a downpour. then his car wouldn't start. then he got.....'the letter'. a literal 'dear john'. wasn't expecting to hear from Emerson until early april, but got the very polite rejection today. they said it was a very competitive field, yadda yadda yadda. he actually took it pretty well and i think he's very nearly convinced himself that iowa is his choice. since he hasn't really applied anywhere else (besides northwestern which is a pretty major longshot) it looks like this is it. let's hope the visit goes well on tuesday and he's completely convinced.
it's been a great run, but i think this may have been our last spring break in anna maria for a while. the people who own the house we rent have decided they're going to do monthly rentals vs. weekly, which means no more house. i think the boys have kind of outgrown the spot anyway.....they seemed a little bored - even with stephen dorff along (new meat!). while i love spending day after day reading on the beach, i don't think it's necessarily their cup of tea. they did go jetskiing one afternoon, and had a good time although there were a few complaints of soreness the next day:) perfect weather for almost all ten days, just one day of rain- St. Patrick's Day. Brady's birthday was fun, and the parade was perfect - short! an elephant, a pirate ship, shriners, a couple of high school bands, done. all in all, pretty mellow...pretty lowkey.....maybe it's good though since there's so much stuff in store in the next couple of months.
o.m.g. that's all i have to say about senior state. jake had the best meet of his life. plain and simple. looked unbelievably strong, so fun to watch, so fun to hang out with. he was super relaxed and looked like he was having a blast. the team all seemed to 'hang' well together...no drama...just fun. well, a tiny bit of drama - surrounding the lzr! the mighty mend glue i got- thinking it was the answer to all our problems - wasn't. not even close. the real answer, black fingernail polish and duct tape (thanks ankeny high coach) - worked like a dream and got the suit through three nights of competition. the weekend is going to be a really special memory for me, and i hope for him too. he broke 3 lincoln records, but won't get credit for it since it happened after h.s. season. he'll always know, even if nobody else does:) a small part of me kind of wishes he'd continue swimming, that some school would come out of the wings at the last second and offer him some fabulous scholarship...well...it COULD happen:)
the rest of me, that isn't that small part of me, is ready for him to take on new challenges and to pursue his other dreams. i think he'll swim this summer, but i doubt that he's going to be as focused and in shape as he was for this meet ...here's the times he threw down!
IM - 2:03 (lincoln record)
500 free - 4:50 (lincoln record)
100 free- :48
200 free- 1:47
100 fly - :55 (lincoln record)
CIA won every age-group (except 15&over women) and won the whole meet by like a thousand points. way to go, again, CIA! and congratulations on a fabulous record-breaking (x3!) performance jake.
an absolute emotional rollercoaster of a day, start to finish. here are some of the highs and the lows in no particular order:
HIGH - watching jake put together what was arguably the best race of his career...200 free - seeded in the 6th lane, wins it with a 1:48.21 (tied with the #1 seed charlie hogan, but still a win!) ranked 10th going into state!!!!!! I was on the deck timing his freshman year when he swam a great 500 to make it to state, and i was on the deck timing for this one..got pretty emotional - probably too emotional for an official timer:) lots of screaming, jumping up and down, a little crying, a lot of hugging jake.
HIGH - jake swimming a great 100 free with a time of 49.78 to make it to state ranked 20th
HIGH - brady swimming his best 200 free ever with a time of 1:55.9
low - brady missing the cut in the 500 free
HIGH - 400 free relay swimming a great race and making it to state: swim order= luis, brady, zac, jake in a 3:25.44 for a rank of 19th in the state.
low - no one else on the Lincoln team making it in an individual race - insanely fast field across the state this year, fastest cut times in the last 5 years at least...lots of near misses
HIGH - watching the other seniors, dos and stephen particularly, put together great races to take them to state one last time...
low - thinking i lost my camera with all the pictures of the day
HIGH - andy finding my camera in our bathroom at home...whoops!
what a great day, so glad jake and brady will experience a state meet together, a perfect way to cap off jake's high school career!
thanks to the artic blast that blew their original meet out of the water, the boys traveled to Ft. Dodge for a makeup meet. jake's last regulation meet. he didn't swim his normal events, he's almost always in the 400 free relay - the last event of every meet - but coach switched things up so i didn't even notice his last swim. seriously? years of this and i missed it!! but jake and brady graciously took the time to pose for some very serious portraits, lessening the blow. congrats on a great high school career jakey....more to come post season:)
the boys took on ottumwa and won, but what a weird meet! the announcer/scorekeeper was apparently terribly confused by the dual meet format (three teams - home team swims each opponent 'separately')...and it took a while to get everything all straightened out....but thanks to coach brayton's good notes we got credit where credit was due. the boys are having solid swims....they're awfully tired and still coming back from a series of colds and viruses...let's hope they're all healthy by state!
the swim team got its first win tonight! i think it's going to be great for overall morale. everybody swam well, and it was nice to go up against a team they weren't hopelessly outmatched by. jake had a great 100 fly, went 58 high.....had a decent 50 free....23 high. it was definitely a big boost for them to get a win, next up, ottumwa. they have a couple of outstanding swimmers, but coach brayton may have a few tricks up his sleeve to pull in the win. let's hope anyway....yay Lincoln:)
for better or worse, it's done. jake sent his common app in to two of the four schools he's applying to. it was a dramatic couple of days as we came down to the wire, with me 'pushing' him (read yelling, screaming, cursing, cajoling) to work harder to make the essay the best it could be. i don't remember my parents even knowing that i applied to college, but that could just be my spotty memory. now, we wait. for the next round of deadlines (for the other two schools) and of course, to hear the results. what happens if you get in everywhere? what happens if you get in nowhere? i hate not having control over things. guess it's one of those 'life lessons' everyone's always talking about. feh.
Since it's the first day of 2009, i'm cleaning up the evidence of the 2008 holidays. took down the tree, threw away the 'orphan' cookies and candies that have been sitting around for days.
and as i took down the ornaments, a job i actually like better than putting them up because i get to look at them before the boys descend on the boxes like vultures - i thought about the next time i'd see them. jake will be coming home for break:) something to look forward to right? trying to keep my positive outlook on all the changes we're in for this year. so i guess that's my resolution. stay positive:) hey, it's easier than losing weight!
